Country flag

Philippines Flag

The Philippines uses a blue-and-red horizontal bicolour with a white triangle at the hoist, containing a golden sun and three stars. Its display has a p...

Where is Philippines?

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Zoomed location

This country is small on the world map, so this inset shows nearby countries for context.

About Philippines and its flag

The Philippines uses a blue-and-red horizontal bicolour with a white triangle at the hoist, containing a golden sun and three stars. Its display has a prescribed change of order: blue is uppermost in peace, while red is uppermost in war. The Flag and Heraldic Code and its implementing rules govern the current standard.

Flag design and meaning

The flag is twice as long as it is wide. A white equilateral triangle occupies the hoist and contains a golden-yellow sun with eight rays and three five-pointed golden-yellow stars, one at each corner. The remaining field is blue and red in equal horizontal bands; when flown in peace blue is above red, and in war red is above blue.

Three stars: The three stars stand for the country’s three principal geographical divisions: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
Eight rays of the sun: The eight rays represent the eight provinces identified by the House of Representatives as the first to revolt against Spanish rule.
Order of the blue and red fields: The display order communicates condition: regulations require blue above red in peace and red above blue in war.

History and adoption

A National Historical Commission marker records that Emilio Aguinaldo conceived the design and that Marcela Mariño Agoncillo, assisted by Lorenza Agoncillo and Delfina Herbosa Natividad, sewed it in Hong Kong. It was first hoisted at the Battle of Alapan on 28 May 1898 and unfurled at Kawit during the 12 June 1898 independence proclamation. Republic Act No. 8491, approved in 1998, later set the present legal code.

How to recognise this flag

Find the white hoist triangle: it holds a central eight-rayed sun and one five-pointed star at each of its three corners.
For a normally displayed flag, blue is above red; a reversed red-over-blue arrangement is the prescribed wartime display.
The combination of three stars and an eight-rayed sun distinguishes it from other blue-red-white flags.